State of the Teutonic Order

The State of the Teutonic Order, also known as the Ordenstaat, was a crusader state along the Baltic Sea that was ruled by the Teutonic Order from 1230 to 1525. In 1230, the Order began to conquer the pagan Old Prussians, and their control expanded to Courland, Gotland, Livonia, Neumark, Pomerelia, and Samogitia; its territory encompassed parts of the modern countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. In 1237, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword joined their land and forces with the Teutonic Order, and the King of Denmark sold Estonia to the Teutonic Order in 1346. Following the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, the Teutonic Order fell into decline, and it joined the Livonian Confederation. Following the 1466 Peace of Thorn, the western part of Teutonic Prussia became "Royal Prussia", which became a vassal of Poland, while the monastic eastern state was secularized in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia.